Recess’s mission is to support the creative process of contemporary artists by providing a space forproductive activity and a platform for a partnership with the public. By offering artists flexible work/ exhibition space, artists are given agency to determine the visibility of their work and the parameters of its presentation.

Free of charge and open to the public, Recess facilitates everyday interactions between artists and thecommunity in order to promote the productive space of the working artist as a site of valuable visual and intellectual interactions. Our endeavors offer critical exposure for the artists we support while fostering an inclusive environment in which artists and the public can engage in a meaningful exchange of art and ideas.

Recess was formed in May 2009 to address concerns that emerging artists cannot afford to live or workin proximity to exhibition communities. Securing a platform to gain visibility and develop creative goals and a professional career is often a daunting task. The organization was likewise founded to actively respond to changing modes of production. Contemporary artwork, unlike more traditional forms, can be site-specific, performance-based or ephemeral in nature. The traditional gallery space is often unable to accommodate the interactive, process-based artistic production. The artist’s studio is also changing: no longer bound to conventional space, the studio of the contemporary artist is the street, the gallery, or anywhere the practitioner chooses to work. Session was conceived to directly take on the evolving conditions of contemporary art, realizing ambitious projects that don’t always “fit” in the customary context.

On August 17, 2012 Molly Dilworth will begin work on Date the Time, as part of Recess’s signature program, Session. Session invites artists to use Recess’s public space as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation. For Date the Time, Dilworth will create a series of banners and flags, bearing patterns generated from user-submitted photos. Addressing digital content using traditional folk art techniques, Dilworth will distill issues of labor and consumer rights from unexpected sources. Join us Thursday September 20th, 2012, for a reception marking the first half of Dilworth's Session at Recess.

About the Artist:Molly Dilworth is a Brooklyn-based artist who views creative practice as a form of research. Using data from a specific site as a structure, she gives form to things that invisibly motivate our actions. From rooftops to the Pedestrian plazas of Times Square, Dilworth has created outdoor site-specific paintings in New York City and exhibited across the United States. She has been a resident artist at the Salina Art Center in Kansas and in the Art & Law Program with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in NYC. Her work will be included in Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good in the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale.

Over the course of her Session, Laura Vitale tested the audio-visual properties and material behaviors of gypsum plaster. The reception will feature new sculpture, sound work, and video created over the last two months as well as live audio experiments.

Recess invites you to listen and contribute to Laura Vitale's ongoing sonic explorations with gypsum plaster. As part of her Session at Recess, Vitale built a storefront listening and recording booth for visitors to record their descriptions, imitations, and responses to the voices released by submerged plaster. Booth hours are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 12-6 pm

During her time at Recess in Red Hook, Abigail DeVille has excavated the psychic terrains of urban spaces, inscribing the invisible remains of history. Join us for a reception marking the closing of her project.

Thursday, July 19th join us for a reception marking the beginning of Laura Vitale's Session at Recess. Over the course of White Sands, Vitale will transform Recess into a research laboratory for testing the audio-visual properties of gypsum plaster.

About the Artist:Laura Vitale’s work orients around sound, also utilizing video, drawing, photography, sculpture, and performance. She graduated with an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2012, and holds a BA in Visual Art from Brown University, 2007. She has made commissioned installations and performances for WNYC and Issue Project Room, been a Van Lier Fellow at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, and received a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant. In fall of 2012, she will perform a New Programming Commission for Triple Canopy. In 2009, Vitale co-founded We Are Your Friends, a community choral group that celebrates the untrained voice.